The vision God gave me concerning Washington D.C. which healed anger and fear:
It occurred during my morning journaling time as I asked God to show me His heavenly perspective and how HE saw Washington D.C. It was a life-changing experience!
Do you think it is your doctor’s job to keep you healthy? Perhaps you think that your insurance company bears some responsibility as well, but the healthiest people are those who assume their own responsibility for their health even though they make use of other resources for assistance. Do you think it is your pastor’s job to make you spiritual? True pastors are more than preachers and church managers; they are shepherds, but my word teaches you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You make it easier for those who watch for your souls if you take the responsibility and initiative for your own spiritual life.
Do you study the Bible in your search for truth? A question came up about my credentials. Those most familiar with the scriptures pointed out that no prophet came from Nazareth. Since I was standing right there they could have asked me where I was born, but they were so confident in their understanding they didn’t feel the need to. Do you fear questions, particularly about spiritual matters, and grab the first answer at hand to resolve the question? This increases the risk of being wrong and not realizing it. It’s OK to have questions; the Bible was written in a way to prompt them. Go ahead and ask me; I’m still standing right here.
Do you think things that are intact are better than things that are broken, and unbreakable things are best of all? What use is something that is broken? If it doesn’t work and isn’t worth repairing you throw it away. Yet I said that whoever falls on this rock would be broken, and that was better than the alternative of having the rock fall on you. Hearts can be broken, and this is painful, but it is better than the alternative of making your heart unbreakable. I also teach that the sacrifices acceptable to me are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. If you understand the value of this you will come and fall on the rock of your own choice to break your heart.
My word says that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are blessed because they will be filled. Do you see this only as a vigorous campaign against sin? It is more than that. Do you find that much of conversation is trivial and superficial and the presentation of an attractive façade? Don’t you hunger for something deeper, sacred companions with whom there is no desire for such a shallow level of connection? They that feared the Lord spoke often one to another and I hearkened and heard it and wrote a book of remembrance for those that feared me and thought upon my name. They shall be mine in the day that I make up my precious treasure and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Hungering for sacred companions on your journey is another form of hungering after righteousness and if you do so I will give them to you.
Does the concept of surrender have a strong negative connotation for you? Your culture has a strong bias for victory and triumph. Then does surrender seem like the worst thing that can happen, the only alternative available after defeat? Yet I ask you to surrender to me. The world views death as ultimate loss. My radical message reversed this logic and made death the pathway to life that is abundant and eternal. And so it was out of my love for you that I asked you to lay down your life and pick up your cross and follow me. I want you to learn to see surrender to me in a positive light, that you may embrace it and come to me to have life.
My word offers you the promise of transformation into my likeness. Does this sound too good to be true? Or is it threatening? For you have a lifetime of effort to date invested in becoming who you are now. Does transformation look like abandoning that effort and starting over? If you realize this you understand the cost of following me. It is you. For I have called you to lay down your life and pick up your cross to follow me. You must release your old life to obtain new life. Do not be discouraged by this or think that your life to this point is a waste. For I have been at work in your life already all along and I will complete that good work I have begun in you.
What does it take to make you angry? Some people seem to be looking for things to upset them, and others for reasons to avoid this response even when deliberately provoked. You can let your mind dwell on past events that upset you and enter into a state of agitation by mental effort alone. Such a condition takes on a life of its own in an escalating spiral. This robs you of your peace and well-being as effectively as if there was a new confrontation and offense. Behold I have given you the power to avoid going down this road. A wise man rules his own spirit and a fruit of the Spirit is self-control. What did I mean when I said to resist not evil? Turning the other cheek means turning to me.
I told my followers that by this the world would know that they were my disciples, by the love they had for one another. Does this imply that it is less important to love those outside the faith? This relates to another encounter I had about love in which the question came up of, ‘who is my neighbor?’ I told a story about a man who was attacked. Who came to his aid? You know this as the story of the Good Samaritan. The doctrinal differences and separation of the Jews and Samaritans were central to this story. So I answered the question of who is my neighbor in the widest possible sense. So the answer to loving one another to show that you are my disciple should be answered in the widest possible sense.
Do you think of yourself as an ordinary person and make the same judgment of most other people you meet? You may regard a few as exceptional, but only a few, because according to conventional wisdom if everyone is special then no one is. Your culture is adept at identifying these distinctions and highly aware of them. But there are no ordinary people in the Kingdom of God. Each person you meet is fearfully and wonderfully made. Each one has a destiny, a future and a hope in me. Not all will walk in the fullness of them, but if you walk in grace and love toward them you can give them honor and respect for their potential. If you are willing to do this you may help facilitate them into the manifestation of their true eternal destiny.
